Ms. Word

Microsoft Word is (practically speaking) “identical” on both the Macintosh and Windows computer platforms. Thus we can learn to use the Macintosh version of Word on an IBM compatible and visa-versa. While we will be using Microsoft Word as our word processing program, many of the techniques we’ll cover are applicable on other word processing programs as well.

Most Microsoft programs allow a minimum of 3 different ways to accomplish any single task. It isn’t necessary for you to learn all three. Simply pick the method, which best fits your personality type. I personally like the Hot Keys, which allow me to keep my hands on the keyboard. Please note that Mac and PC Hot Keys are the same except the PC always uses the Control Key Ctrl along with another key and the Mac always uses the Command Key(Apple) Key along with another key. For Example: Undo on the PC is Ctrl+Z: Undo on the Mac is (Apple)Z

Starting and Quitting

Starting Word

via Start Menu (PC Only): Click on the START Menu (usually the lower left-hand side of the screen) and select “Microsoft Word” from the “Programs” Folder.

via the Microsoft Office Manager:The Microsoft Office Manager, is an optional toolbar which floats around on the Window’s desktop. On the Mac, its found as a menu option (near help).

via the Desktop (Word in the MS Office Folder): Open “My Computer”, open “C:”, open “Programs”, open “Microsoft Office”, and then double click on “Microsoft Word”.

Quitting Word

via Menu:go to the “File” menu and select “Exit”

via Quit Button: “X” button found on the upper right-hand-side of the Word window.

via Hot Key (Alt+F4 for PC) ((Apple)+Qfor Mac)

Saving and Loading:

New File

New

Open

Save

via Menu:Go tothe “File” Menu and select “New”.

via Toolbar:The “New” Tool looks like a blank piece of paper. Click on it to create a new blank document. NOTE: This method of creating a new document does not give you the option on using a wizard.

via Hot Key(Ctrl)+N

via Desktop (PC only): Click on the desktop or in a folder with your right mouse button. Select “New” from the resulting menu, and then select “Microsoft Word Document”. Name the document, and double-click on it to launch Word. NOTE: This method of creating a new document does not give you the option of using a wizard.

Saving a File:On the Macintosh, Word defaults to saving new files in it’s home directory (ex. Macintosh HD\MSOFFICE\WORD\). On the PC, Word defaults to saving new files to the “My Documents” folder. BowNET users should save all Word files to their “Home” Directories. Word also defaults to saving a file back to where it was loaded from

via Menu: Go tothe “File” Menu and select “Save”.

via Toolbar: The “Save” Tool looks like a floppy disk. Click on it to save your document.

via Hot Key: (Ctrl)+S

“Save As”can be used to save a second copy of your “open” document with a new name and/or a new location.

Opening a File

via Menu: Go tothe “File” Menu and select “Open”.

via Toolbar: The “Open” Tool looks like a Folder. Click on it to open an existing document.

via Hot Key:(Ctrl)+O

viaDesktop:Find the file (Hopefully in your Home Directory) and double click on its icon

Entering Text

Cursor – via mouse and keyboard (w & w/o Ctrl): The cursor is the vertical line which appears on your screen and blinks. It is used to indicate where in your document you are currently editing. Clicking in the document with the left mouse button where you’d like it to be located can relocate it. Using the cursor keys can also relocate it. The cursor keys are 4 keys (located between the central keys and the numeric keypad on most keyboards) with the little arrows printed on them. Press the up arrow to move the cursor up, down arrow to go down, etc… Please note that the cursor can’t be place in the middle of nowhere. It must be placed in existing text or after a “Return”. If you hold down the Ctrl key while using the cursor keys, the cursor will travel up and down your text by paragraphs and left and right through your text by word.

Backspace: When you press the “Backspace” key (usually found in the upper right corner of the central keys), it moves the cursor one space to the left while deleting any characters in its path.

Delete:When you press the “Delete” key (usually found to the right of the “Backspace” key), you delete one character from the right of the cursor.

Editing Text:

HELP

All of the Tools on the Word Toolbar, will identify themselves if you hold the mouse over them without pressing a button.

Additional help can be found by selecting an option from the “Help” menu.

Even more help can be brought online by pressing the F1 button. In Office ’97, this brings up the Office Assistant who recognizes most “real language” requests.

Selecting:The first step in editing your text, is selecting the text you wish to edit. For example, if you select nothing and then tell the computer to make your selection “bold”. The computer makes “nothing” bold.

Select text and graphics by using the mouse

To select

Do this

Any amount of text

Drag over the text.

A word

Double-click the word.

A graphic

Click the graphic.

A line of text

Move the pointer to the left of the line until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then click.

Multiple lines of text

Move the pointer to the left of the lines until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then drag up or down.

A sentence

Hold down CTRL, and then click anywhere in the sentence.

A paragraph

Move the pointer to the left of the paragraph until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then double-click. Or triple-click anywhere in the paragraph.

Multiple paragraphs

Move the pointer to the left of the paragraphs until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then double-click and drag up or down.

A large block of text

Click at the start of the selection, scroll to the end of the selection, and then hold down SHIFT and click.

An entire document

Move the pointer to the left of any document text until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then triple-click.

Headers and footers

In normal view, click Header and Footer on the View menu; in page layout view, double-click the dimmed header or footer text. Then move the pointer to the left of the header or footer until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and triple-click.

Comments, footnotes, and endnotes

Click in the pane, move the pointer to the left of the text until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then triple-click.

Cut & Paste:When you “cut and paste”, you select some text or graphics, remove them from their current location, and then insert them into a new location.

via Menu:Make your selection, select “Cut” from the “Edit” Menu, position your cursor to where you want your selection to reappear, and then select “Paste” from the “Edit” menu.

via Toolbar: Make your selection, select “Cut” from the “Edit” Menu, position your cursor to where you want your selection to reappear, and then select “Paste” from the “Edit” menu.

Cut

Copy

Paste

Format Painter

via Hot Key: Make your selection, press the “Cut” hot key Ctrl+X=Cut, position your cursor to where you want your selection to reappear, and then press the “Paste” hot keyCtrl+V=Paste.

Drop Menus via right mouse button (PC) or ctrl mouse (MAC): Make your selection, press the right mouse button and select “cut”, position your cursor to where you want your selection to reappear, and then press the right mouse button and select “paste”.

Drag and Drop:Make your selection, click once in the midst of your selection with the left mouse button and hold it down, while holding the mouse button down, drag the selection to where you wish it relocated to, then let go of the mouse button.

Copy and Paste:When you “copy and paste”, you select some text or graphics (the original selection remains at its current location) and insert an additional copy into a new location.

via Menu:Make your selection, select “Copy” from the “Edit” Menu, position your cursor to where you want your copy to appear, and then select “Paste” from the “Edit” menu.

via Toolbar: Make your selection, select “Copy” from the “Edit” Menu, position your cursor to where you want your copy to appear, and then select “Paste” from the “Edit” menu.

via Hot Key: Make your selection, press the “Copy” hot key Ctrl+C=Copy, position your cursor to where you want your copy to appear, and then press the “Paste” hot keyCtrl+V=Paste.

Drop Menus via right mouse button (PC) or ctrl mouse (MAC): Make your selection, press the right mouse button and select “Copy”, position your cursor to where you want your copy to appear, and then press the right mouse button and select “Paste”.

Undo & Redo:When using the Undo feature, Word allows you to undo the last 99 edits you did to your document. Redo, allows you to redo up to 99 undos…..

via Menu:Select “Undo Typing” or “Repeat Typing” from the “Edit” menu

via Toolbar: Click on the “Undo” icon to “undo”, click on the “Redo” icon to “redo”….

via Hot Key: Ctrl+Z=Undo; Ctrl+Y=Redo

Spell Check, Thesaurus, & Grammar Check

Office ’95 and ’97 automatically spell checks as you type. A red squiggly line indicates questionable words. To edit the word, click on it with the right mouse button and either select a correct spelling, tell word to ignore the word, add the word to your dictionary, or add your word to the AutoCorrect list. NOTE: adding words to Word dictionaries or Lists happens locally only. Office ’97 also includes an automatic grammar checker. A green squiggly line indicates questionable grammar.

via Menu:Spell Check and Grammar can be run from the “Tools” menu.

via Toolbar: Spell Check and “Grammar Check” can be run by clicking on the “Spelling and Grammar” tool on the toolbar.

via Hot Key: F7=Spelling and Grammar; SHIFT+F7=Thesaurus

Printing

via Menu: Print, Page Setup,andPrint Previewcan all be accessed from the “File” menu. When printing, select Print and then if desired, set the destination printer, the page range, and the number of copies.

via Toolbar:ThePrinttool icon looks like a printer. NOTE: Each method of printing has the same effect on Macintosh. However, the PC’s Print Tool on the Toolbar results in immediate printing without options

via Hot Key Ctrl+P=Print

Print Preview:In short, the Print Preview feature allows you to see how a document will look when you print it. It also allows you to do last minute formatting on the document.

Print Preview Tools from Left to Right

Print: Already explained

Magnify: Allows you to zoom in on parts of the document

One Page: Previews only one page at a time

Multiple Page: Previews multiple pages at one time

Zoom Control: How much are you zoomed in/out?

View Rulers: Margins: Allows you to adjust margins from the Print Preview screen

Shrink to Fit: “when one, just isn’t enough”: Shrinks your document to fit on one less page

Full Page: Removes all toolbars from window, thus giving you more viewing real estate.

Close: Self Explanatory

Help: Self Explanatory

Formatting Text:

Font Formatting:The most commonly used font formatting options are available on the “formatting” toolbar. All of the font formatting options are available when you select “Font” from either the “Format” menu or the right-button clicked mouse.

Font

Size

Bold

Italics

Underline

Fonts: The shapes of your letters. NOTE: different fonts will be available on different machines. If preparing a document to be viewed on different companies, you should use standardized fonts such as “Time-Roman”, “Arial”, etc..

Font Size:The size of the letter

Bold, Italics, Underline, and Color:Self Explanatory. There are also hot keys for the following: Ctrl+B=Bold, Ctrl+I=Italics, Ctrl+U=Underline

Text Color

Effects (only available through Format command): These include a number of additional font formatting options such as superscript, subscript, emboss, shadow, etc..

Character Spacing (only available through Format command): Allows you adjust the amount of space between individual characters as well as their position relative to the line of text.

Animation (Office ’97 Only) (only available through Format command): These visual effects are useful only for electron distribution. None of these effects will print out.

Paragraph Formatting:The most commonly used paragraph formatting options are available on the “formatting” toolbar. All of the paragraph formatting options are available when you select “Paragraph” from either the “Format” menu or the right-button clicked mouse.

Left

Center

Right

Flush

Numbering

Bullets

Decrease Indent

Increase Indent

Alignment:Adjusts how the text is aligned in the document.

left justified: Text lines up to the left

right justified: Text lines up to the right

centered: Text is centered

flush: Text is centered with enough spaces between words that the left and right hand extremes also line up.

Spacing:(only accessible through the Format Command): Adjust the “Line Spacing” as well as the spacing before or after a new paragraph.

Bullets and Numbering

Numbering:Word automatically places numbers in front of each new line of text.

Bullets:Word automatically places bullets in front of each new line of text.

Indentation:Increase and Decrease the amount of space between the left margin and the left side of the text.

Bullets and Numbering Format(only accessible through the Format Command): allows you to change the style of your bullets and numbering system

Format Painter:Once you get a section of text to look the way you want it to, you can copy all of its attributes to another section of text using the “Format Painter” tool. This tool looks like a paintbrush and is located to the right of the “Paste” tool on the standard toolbar.

Styles:Like the “Format Painter”, “Styles” allow you to pass the attributes of one section of text to another. Unique to “Styles”, you can create format templates such as “normal” or “headline” to apply to the appropriate sections of your document. Should you change your mind about what a “headline” looks like, simply modify the settings for that “style” and all of the sections of text which were formatted as “headline” will automatically take on the new settings.

Tabs and Margins: before adjusting “Tabs and Margins”, it is best to be in “Layout” view. This is accomplished by selecting “Page Layout” from the “View” menu.

For the whole document:To adjust the margins for the entire document, select “Page Setup” from the “File” menu.

For a section of the document:Select the section of the document you wish to modify and move the little triangles found on the ruler at the top of the page.

These triangles are labeled as:

First Line Indent

Hanging Indent

Left Indent

Right Indent

Clicking on the bottom of the same ruler creates tabs.

Auto-Format:Found in the “Format” menu, this option is both self explanatory and dangerous.

Insert Auto Text:If there are particular phrases you type in often, you can use “Auto-Text” to enter the phrase automatically whenever you type in a shortcut version. For example, I might want Word to automatically enter: